Wars are destroying the world, and religious leaders must join together to urge their governments to “stop while there is still time,” Pope Francis said.

Numerous volunteers and professionals are doing everything in their power to make Pope Francis’ visit to Belgium go smoothly.

OSV News recently spoke with Father Michael Bechard, who alleges in a civil lawsuit filed in March with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that he was sexually abused by Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, a Vatican media expert, founder of a prominent Canadian national Catholic television network and organizer of the 2002 Toronto World Youth Day.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York said he is “disappointed” that Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend the Al Smith charity dinner Oct. 17, a New York Catholic charities fundraiser that has become a staple for presidential nominees in election years.

Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory celebrated a Sept. 22 Mass to mark the 125th anniversary of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington by reminding the faithful the church building is “something far more precious than a simple structure or a functional edifice.”

The example of Blessed Carlo Acutis — an Italian boy who is expected to become the “first millennial saint” — reveals how a commitment to the love of Christ results in a fulfilled rather than a wasted life, an English bishop said.

The director of Caritas in Congo was shot and killed by an armed militant group while approaching a roadblock, Caritas Internationalis announced.

As National Suicide Prevention Month draws to a close, a Catholic mental health expert told OSV News that open, ongoing conversations about suicide are crucial.

Pope Francis met with the bishops of Mozambique Sept. 24, a day after he had canceled his scheduled audiences because of “a mild flu-like condition.”

Ukraine’s struggle against Russia’s war is “prophetic,” showing that “the defense of God-given dignity … happens at the price of one’s body and blood,” said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.